The present invention generally relates to exercise apparatus, specifically to upper body exercise apparatus, and particularly to upper body exercise apparatus for use with stationary bicycles.
Pound for pound, muscle burns 25 times more calories than fat. Specifically, one pound of muscle uses about 350-500 calories per week to survive while a pound of fat only needs about 14 calories per week to survive. Thus, increasing muscle composition of the body increases the body's ability to burn calories. To keep weight off, one needs to keep muscle on. Losing fat is good while losing muscle is not. Strength exercise adds muscle and keeps calories from turning to fat plus increasing bone density. Because 65% of the body's muscles are located in the upper body, upper body exercise is clearly desired. Furthermore, there is less risk of stressing the cardiovascular system when the exercise workload is spread over more muscle groups including those in the upper body.
Stationary bicycles have been a popular form of exercise especially in areas where weather is a factor in preventing outdoor activities. Many stationary bicycles have stationary handle bars and have no provisions for upper body exercise. Other stationary bicycles incorporate handle bars either free from or tied to the foot pedal crank, with upper body exertion being generally limited to a pull/push parallel movement. A few stationary bicycles include arms behind the user and pivotable in generally vertical planes and having pull cords extending from their outer ends which operate a resistance loading device. Such bicycles including resistance loading devices are considerably more expensive than other stationary bicycles and thus are not as commonly owned by individual consumers and generally provide exertion on the muscles of the arms, with upper body exertion generally being limited to a push/pull parallel movement.
Thus, a need exists for an apparatus for exercising the upper body of a user while utilizing a stationary bicycle, with such exercising apparatus being relatively inexpensive, offering substantial variance in upper body exercise, and which otherwise overcomes the disadvantages and shortcomings of prior stationary bicycles.